NMPA, YouTube Reach Agreement on Disbursing Unclaimed Royalties

The National Music Publishers' Association said it reached agreement with YouTube for the payment of unclaimed royalties for videos using music whose ownership wasn't previously known. The agreement, which takes effect next year, will result in the disbursement of millions in previously unclaimed nonperformance royalties, NMPA said Thursday. The opt-in period for music publishers begins Monday and lasts through Feb. 28, NMPA said. YouTube will provide participating publishers after the opt-in period with a list of songs it previously didn't have ownership information for, NMPA said. Publishers will initially be able to claim royalties during a three-month window on those songs for the period Aug. 1, 2012-Dec. 31, 2015. Royalties undistributed after the claim window will be disbursed based on each publisher's market share and revenue paid for known YouTube usage figures during the same period, NMPA said. Future royalty claims will be calculated based on 12-month YouTube usage periods between Jan. 1, 2016, and Dec. 31, 2019, NMPA said. “It is essential that we work with digital services like YouTube … to fix the challenge of incomplete ownership information to ensure royalties are no longer unmatched and music owners are paid accurately by the platforms that rely on their work,” said NMPA President David Israelite in a news release. “The revenue earned by the music industry on YouTube continues to grow significantly year over year, and we're committed to making sure that publishers are paid for the usage of their works on their platform,” said Tamara Hrivnak, YouTube head-music partnerships, Americas, in the news release.